Vietnam to Foster Economic Ties with UK
The Vietnamese National Assembly (NA), the country’s top legislature, will support the government to promote multifaceted relations with the UK, particularly economic ties, said NA Chairman Nguyen Van An to British Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State John Prescott in London yesterday.
An, who started his trip to the UK on March 19, pledged that his government will offer good conditions to British investors to do their long-term business in the Southeast Asian country. He also praised the UK's initiative to provide direct financial support for the Vietnamese government's poverty reduction program.
On the same day, the Vietnamese official attended a meeting of more than 100 Vietnamese and British entrepreneurs from different economic sectors.
Later, An met with British officials and scholars at the Asia House Entrepreneurs Club, when he detailed the NA’s role in Vietnam's international integration process.
Earlier, the chairman visited Cardiff City where Governor R. Morgan and Speaker of the Wales Parliament L. D. E. Thomas welcomed him. He also visited the Graig Shipping Company and Oxford University on March 21.
On Sunday, the Vietnamese official and his entourage laid a wreath at the New Zealand House in London where the late President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in 1913 and 1915. He met Vice-Chairman of the British Council Gareth Thomas, and Secretary General of the Britain-Viet Nam Friendship Association Len Aldis, who set up a website last year to collect signatures in support of a petition for compensation for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.
It is the first visit that An has made this year to the UK.
Vietnam is a key market of the UK in several fields. Trade between the two countries has increased substantially in the last few years. Vietnam's exports to the UK rose 34% to more than $1 billion last year, according to the Ministry of Trade.
At the end of 2004, the UK was the 12th largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with 62 investment projects capitalized at over $1.2 billion. There are currently over 200 British companies and organizations operating in Vietnam.
Vietnamese
